European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We got to know the so-called “débacle” – the total collapse – during our flight.

We left by foot, pushing our suitcases on bikes.

In Le Mans the Germans caught up with us.

When the Germans got in front of us, we returned to Nanterre.

The city was almost empty at the time.

It was July and Nanterre had been occupied on June 14th, 1940.

There were very few working factories.

I got back in touch with my comrades from the Communist Youth Movement and we started…

how could I best describe it? The people did not understand anything.

They were suddenly imprisoned instead of in a free country.

This happened in less than a month.

The Nazis crossed the French border on May 10th, 1940 and on June 10th they were in Paris.

Everybody was scared and tried to leave.

We did not understand how in this country of freedom,

where we had everything we wanted, self-sufficient country

(its agriculture and its industry), suddenly nothing was left.

Ration tickets,

we were hungry, cold.

So we felt the need to explain to the people why we were in this situation.

With this group of young people we were able to assemble, those who had stayed in Nanterre or had come back,